City Escapes: Lake Tahoe

A two hours drive from the Sacramento airport and a steep and narrow climb full of switch backs on scenic highway 50 lead to the California side of Lake Tahoe. Visitors flock to its blue waters in summertime and the world renowned winter ski destination and onetime home to the winter Olympics — although, for the past several years lack of snow has largely affected winter tourism, causing many smaller ski spots to shut down early in the season if they’re unable to produce their own snow.

The fall, on the other hand, is a quiet time for the region. Off-season prices make it a comfortable escape — it’s still temperate enough to hike and admire the water, but chilly enough to light a fire and sip wine — an experience of fall that many of California’s micro climates do not have. While you’ll using your hiking boots more than your ski boots, bring a bathing suit because it’s hot tub season if you can get it.

A few weeks ago, we got together with a few others looking for time in nature and headed up to Tahoe City. There is no shortage of biking and hiking trails both along the lake itself and in Burton Creek State Park to be explored.

And so just minutes from our rented abode by foot we climbed to the state park peak for immense views of Lake Tahoe and then descended into the forest for the remainder of our 11 mile hike.

Through tall evergreens and birch trees we went, and at times the trails would narrow so much that we would question if we were still on the path — or I should say I would question.

We took a short break on a log, replenished our thirst and snacked on fresh-made sourdough bread.

As with any adventure or excursion, often we look forward to the warm meal to follow. Here we are prepping the Ciabatolla recipe in Kinfolk‘s cookbook.

We made crostini with apples, blue cheese and prosciutto with drizzled honey from a recipe in our Simple Feastcookbook.

For an east coast native, it was a nice visit to fall while being based in the ever consistently temperate and beautiful Davis.